AusBonsai

A couple of years ago I obtained a number of trident seedlings from shibui. He sent me 30, and 29 survived and thrived, I thought that's a pretty good survival rate. That was, I'm sure, greatly helped by the excellent way they were packaged by Neil for shipping. I selected the strongest ones to make a forest planting and planted them into a foam box together so they could get acquainted. Here is a pic taken three weeks after they were planted out, already getting their first leaves. I left them to grow and had to prune them twice the following summer as they were getting way too tall. By the following autumn they had put on some weight already. They were again pruned and then root pruned and replanted in a shallower rectangular container. I divided them into two groups at this stage as I wanted to put a path through the planting. Fast forward a year and the time had come to put them into a pot. It took a whole afternoon,but they are now all safely tucked into their new pot. Some had to be relocated from their position in the rectangular container, but I could also leave some in their original configuration. I built up the left side a little higher and then put in some upright rocks to give the impression of a small cliff with the path (yet to be paved with very fine "gravel")curving over the hill to the left. My aim is to try and shape the trees so they overhang the path, forming a canopy or tunnel effect. I trid to place the trees randomly and at different angles to get a natural effect. I hope I've succeded, we'll see once the foliage is on the trees.

Hey RB, it's great that you've put this thread together as selfishly, I am on the same path after receiving a heap of well packaged and healthy Tridents from Shibui recently. So, I look forward to watching this thread progress.

I really like what you have put together here. It is not formulaic - so often I see forests that fan out - in a theoretically logical manner but in my mind,'forced' usually not looking like a natural group. (Any hey, I know that some of my forests look contrived - it is hard put together a realistic looking group.) Here though, you have put together an interesting composition of trees that works well, I reckon. It is randomly harmonious ---- which probably doesn't make sense to anyone but me!

Thanks for the post, I look forward to watching and learning.

Cheers,

Mark

Thanks Mark,
I was recently in Europe and spent some time walking through forests over there, mainly in Germany and Austria, so I suppose that gave me some ideas. Here are a few of the photos of those forests, hope thay give you or anyone else interested some inspiration.
Cheers, Frank.

Watching this one closely Frank as I too got a bundle of whips from Neil to group/forest

That's a great first forest RB.
Having the trees growing together for a few years does seem to make them more foresty? I think. This was something that was mentioned when Tom Yamamoto hepled me put together my first forest at a workshop way back in the last century. i did not understand waht he was talking about at the time but can now see the difference.
I like the look of the cliff along your path but the path seems to cut a big gap in the arrangement that draws the eye straight through. The path does curve around to the left nicely but there's a vacant spot near the back with no trees so my eye does not follow the path, just goes straight through to the back.
One of my early forests had the same thing. I solved it by taking the entire right section and turning it slightly so the rear trees filled that open spot. Looks like you could do similar. That larger right tree would probably look better just a bit further back anyway.
Otherwise you could add a couple of extra trees in that psace to the right of the path at the rear edge to block the gap a bit.

Thanks for the comments Neil. That gap is bothering me a bit too. Most of the trees are wired in place now, so I won't rip them up again, but I will plant another small one in that gap close to the path. That will hopefully rectify the problem and also emphasise the curve of the path a bit more.
Mark, I'll be interested to see how your group of maples will turn out when the time comes to assemble the forest.
Rick, ditto. We can talk about it next week perhaps.
Cheers, Frank.

:bump
I've taken Neil's advice and done something about that too large a gap in the forest where the path goes through it. I planted my last single trident next to the path at the rear. It's actually leaning a little over the path towards the centre of the pot, which is difficult to see from the photos. It's not an ideal solution, but I'm hoping that once it branches out and grows some leaves it won't be so obvious and stick out like a sore thumb. It shouldn't be long before they start to green up, the buds are getting noticably bigger. One of my elms is already putting out leaves as is an english oak seedling.

Hi Frank,

If you need anymore seedlings I've got more than I need so happy to share some when we hook up; I'll drop you a text laters

Cheers
Rick

Thanks Rick,